lf and though it was of fine material it wasn’t like that gowns imported from England that the other girls were wearing. She had not had her hair powdered like the rest of the girls, and she was completely miserable until she met Daniel Parke Custis. He seemed like an honest simple man in his thirties. He probably had an attraction to Martha’s simple nature and beauty, Martha was about five feet tall with dark eyes and dark hair, so he asked her to dance. Suddenly simple Martha Dandridge had become the belle of the ball; she was dancing with one of the richest bachelor’s in Virginia. After a few years Martha and Daniel began to see more of each other and there was talk of an engagement, but first Daniel had to send off for his fathers permission to do so. Although Daniel was a man twenty years older than Martha was he was still under the rule of his father who had become bitter by his marriage and was angry with Daniel for refusing to marry the girl that his father had wished him to. Daniel came back to Martha with a grim look and had decided to give up; he thought it no use to argue with his father. His father was determined that he would not marry anyone that he didn’t approve of, especially Martha for she wasn’t even known; it was just impossible for his son to marry a nobody.Hurt, Martha went home to her mother in tears. She felt as if she wasn’t good enough for the old man. She loved Daniel and wanted more than anything to be with him and the only thing that was stopping them was his father. The man who was miserable in his marriage and apparently wanted Daniel to be just as miserable as he was. Martha was scheduled to return back to New Kent that evening, but not if her mother and her cousin had anything to do with it. They had decided that Martha should stay two more weeks with her cousin Nat and his wife Dorthea, a very popular well known girl of the city. So for the next two weeks Martha and ...
